Arch Linux Christmas Cleanup

E-mail invitation

Season's greetings,
As December the 13th is approaching, I would like to extend a hand, to
invite you all to a Christmas cleaning of our packages.
As you may, or may not know, December the 13th is the longest night of
the year, at least it were said to be so, before the Gregorian
calender was introduced.
If everything is not ready before Christmas, a group of restless dead
souls will come at night and vandalize your property. [1] [2]
Also, the 13th of December is the date for several highly memorable
events, which contributes to making it an appropriate date for a
deadline for adopting orphans in [community] (before moving them to
unsupported the 14th):
* Pope Celestine V resigned the papacy, 13th of December 1294, after
only five months. He was the third pope in history to resign
voluntarily. Benedict IX resigned in May 1040, but soon regretted it,
and returned to papacy. The reason for Pope Celestine V to resign was
to hope to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit. [3]
* Malta became a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, the 13th
of December 1974. This occasion is marked every year as Republic Day
(Maltese: Jum ir-Repubblika). [4]
* Erik XIV, king of Sweden and ruler of Estonia was born, the 13th of
December 1533. Unfortunately, he got mentally ill at the end of eight
year of rule and was murdered, probably with arsenic. [5]
* Robert Plot, the author of "Natural History of Staffordshire", was
born the 13th of December 1640. He was the first man to describe the
Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, an English folk dance involving reindeer
antlers and a hobby horse. The event takes place each year in Abbots
Bromley, a small village in Staffordshire, England. [6] [7]
* Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia, the first man to apply mathematics to the
investigation of the paths of cannonballs, died the 13th of December
1557. His work was later validated by Galileo's studies on falling
bodies. [8]
* Ana Justina Ferreira Néri, considered to be the first Brazilian
nurse, were born the 13th of December 1814. [9]
With this freshly in mind, I hope there remains no doubt that this is
the perfect date to gather up all the orphans for a big package
cleanup.
After the 13th of December (the 14th of December, then), we (TU's)
will move all packages that are still orphans from [community] to
unsupported (AUR). Maintaining [community] and unsupported are part of
our mission. [10]
For maintainers everywhere, giving extra care and attention to
packages that are merely flagged is also looked upon with good favor,
of course. That also goes for deleting or orphaning AUR packages that
hasn't been working for a while (say, for the last 6 months).
I hope you're all with me on this, and that we can stand together, as
one, to move all orphans to unsupported and shed some dead weight from
AUR.
I'll end this with two perfectly suitable and hand-picked inspirational quotes:
"Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond
them into the impossible."
- Arthur C. Clarke
--
Happy Saint Lucy's Day,
Alexander Rødseth
Arch Linux Trusted User
(xyproto on IRC, trontonic on AUR)
References:
Sorry, there are no available English translation for these:
[1] http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskorei
[2] http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luciadagen#Eldre_Luciafeiring
But, these are in English:
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Celestine_V
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_Day_%28Malta%29#13_December_in_Malta
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_XIV_of_Sweden
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Plot
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbots_Bromley_Horn_Dance
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccolo_Fontana_Tartaglia
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_N%C3%A9ri
[10] http://aur.archlinux.org/trusted-user/TUbylaws.html#Mission